[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3995-3996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           FOREST MANAGEMENT

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, 6 years ago last month I gave my first 
speech in the Senate Chamber. It dealt with an especially important 
forestry issue. I continue to have significant interests in these 
matters as chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land 
Management.
  In particular, as chairman of this key subcommittee, I am committed 
to ending the tradition of suspicion and disagreement that has 
characterized so much of forest management over the decades. I am 
pleased to be able to announce this morning a development that takes a 
significant step in that direction.
  In March of 1996, what brought me to this floor was my opposition to 
the so-called salvage rider, an approach that allowed timber sales to 
jeopardize the health of the forests in my home State of Oregon and 
elsewhere. I believed then, as I do now, that salvage sales that 
eliminate public input, prohibit legal appeal, and limit environmental 
analysis, are anathema to responsible and effective forest management. 
Now, 6 years later, I rise in this Senate to announce the cancellation 
of a particularly important salvage rider timber sale and to emphasize 
that, in my view, salvage riders are no way to do business in the 
natural resources field.
  I am pleased to be able to announce this morning the cancellation of 
the Eagle Creek timber sale in my home State of Oregon. From its 
inception, I believed the Eagle Creek salvage sale was not subject to 
adequate review and that the planned logging would result in excessive 
environmental damage. For more than 3 years, I have worked to prevent 
that damage. In July of 2000, I called on the Department of Agriculture 
to convene an independent review team to analyze the threat. The team 
found that, indeed, the sale did pose a greater risk than anticipated 
to the well-being of the Eagle Creek forest.
  Today, I offer my thanks to Agriculture Secretary, Ann Veneman, who 
followed through on her commitment to review the team's findings, for 
choosing to implement them, and for effectively stopping the timber 
sale

[[Page 3996]]

that would have done significant environmental damage.
  The Eagle Creek sale is an example of a sale that should never have 
moved forward in the first place. At the core, section 318 salvage 
sales are inherently flawed because they take the American people, the 
public that we represent, out of the process of managing public land. 
As I thank the Secretary of Agriculture for stopping this flawed sale 
this morning, I call on the administration to oppose further salvage 
riders. Those who would follow the failed Eagle Creek effort are no 
more likely to respect the health of the Nation's forests or the wishes 
and needs of the Nation's forest communities and stakeholders.
  When the Government pursues natural resources issues with no 
opportunity for public comment, discussion, or appeal, the only result 
is distrust and dissention. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests 
and Public Lands Management, on my watch I am going to do everything to 
work with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to avoid that kind of 
approach.
  I am especially pleased the county payments laws that I authored with 
our colleague from Idaho, Senator Larry Craig, are an example of how 
the logjam over forest policy can be broken. That is an approach that 
provides for the ecological health of forests and also helps to ensure 
the economic survival for scores of rural communities. Our county 
payments legislation helps widen the way for a real discussion of 
forest management policy and an open discussion that must continue.
  I come to the floor this morning to reaffirm my commitment to new and 
inclusive approaches to addressing the issues of forest management.
  The administration has now made the right decision on Eagle Creek. It 
is time to halt the destructive practice of salvage sales around this 
country.
  I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis with our colleagues 
and with the Secretary of Agriculture to promote a balanced forest 
policy that protects the remaining old growth in our national forests.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Clinton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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